3 months

Steven is now 3 1/2 months old. It's crazy how fast time flies! One part of me can't believe he's already over 3 months old but another part of me feels like I've known him forever. He is such a joy to have in our lives & it's awesome to see him grow & change all the time. I am really enjoying being a mother! These are some pictures I've taken recently.
"Wassup yo??"

Naked baby!

Steven & I

Josh being crazy with Steven

Steven loves this toy! There are little animals and they turn and make noise

My mother-in-law got him this really cute shirt! He was mad at me for making him take his hands out of his mouth

How cute is that face????

Mommy & baby hands

Steven & I. He is getting much more responsive & smiley towards us

He likes to play with his hands (and stick them in his mouth)

Our little family

He has the cutest smile! He even has dimples but they're a little hard to see here

Classic stretching face

Josh with Steven

Sticking his two fingers in his mouth...it's his favorite thing to do now

He was trying to sit up & was not happy about tipping over

Cute outfit his Aunt Kiki got him

I was sitting him up to burp him & to see if he really wanted to go to sleep...he was not so happy about that

Sleeping while sitting up

Way cute Mickey Mouse outfit my friend Mariel got him

Sleeping with his Mickey hat

Christmas Tree!

Josh went and got our tree last week & we decorated it that same night. It'll really only be good for 2 weeks, but that's okay :) Last year we left ours up at least until mid-January so we'll get some use out if yet ;)
Our pretty tree :)
Trying to capture the coolness of the lights. Didn't quite work....
Steven's first Christmas ornament. Josh's family had a tradition where every year each kid would get their own ornament that represented something they did or were interested in that year. I've always thought that was a cool tradition and I intend on keeping it going with our kids. Josh's mom provided Steven's first one :)

Showing his name

Steven on top of our "snow" tree skirt
He has great "confused" look

Steven & I. We couldn't quite get one that looked good of the both of us...We'll try again later

Steven's really smiling & laughing a lot now...it's so fun!

This picture would totally make the perfect Christmas card!

I love this picture! It looks like he's scared of the silver dinosaur behind him.

Furniture Fun!

Josh & I have lived in our apartment for about a year and a half. It's only a one-bedroom but we're pretty sure we're going to stay here for another 8-10 months. It's fairly inexpensive and, frankly, we don't want to move. Steven sleeps through the night so he doesn't bother us in our room and we're not feeling too cramped yet. I agreed to stay here on one condition: that I could rearrange the furniture & put everything wherever I wanted it. I took before, during, and after pictures and I think you'll see why I wanted to rearrange everything.

This is the view from where the fireplace is. (Northwest corner) We originally put the couches on the side they are in this picture because they wouldn't fit on the other side if we had the TV in there. (We moved the TV into our bedroom so we should've done this a long time ago...)
View from opposite corner (behind the couch)

In the process. View from Southwest corner. (The way to get the shot from the opposite side was blocked)

View from fireplace during the transition

All done! View from fireplace. Josh's desk is still a mess but I am not going to deal with that right now...

View from opposite side (behind the table.View when you come in the door. Before, Josh's desk almost blocked your path completelyYay! I'm so glad it's done! It feels sooooo much bigger :) Merry Christmas to me :)

Wicked

So the broadway musical "Wicked" is coming to Salt Lake City in April. It will be here for about a month. Tickets went on sale yesterday. I was at work and I checked the website when I had a minute (it was a slow day) but our internet is slow and I think there were a TON of people trying to get on that website. Anyway, I checked again when I got home and EVERY show, we're talking like 30 or more shows, was sold out. In a matter of hours, 30+ shows sold out. How crazy is that? And it's not necessarily because a ton of people bought tickets, it's because many many people who stood in line and got on line right at 10 am bought extra tickets so they could scalp them. By the time the tickets were sold out, there were already ads online for tickets at double (or more) the face value of the ticket! Now, I understand the appeal of wanting to make a buck, especially around Christmas time. And yes, scalping is an easy way to do it. But seriously! I have been wanting to see this musical for over 4 years. Now when it FINALLY comes to Utah I can't go, due in large part to scalpers. Who knows if I would've been able to get a ticket anyway, but all those people buying extra for profit certainly didn't help. It's very frustrating. I still plan on seeing it some day but I really am not willing to pay $300 a ticket for crappy seats.

Car

About 3 years ago I bought my 1997 Honda Civic. It didn't really give me any problems until about a year and a half ago. It looks pretty nice in this picture but now it's much more ghetto-licious ;) I only have 2 hubcaps (one on each side), my front bumper is broken and held together with a plastic pull tie, it was broken into a year and a half ago and so the black side panel on the outside of one of the widows is missing (thank goodness they didn't actually break my window, though! Nice thieves...). The little lever you pull inside to open the hood is partially missing so I have to use a wrench to pull the lever now...anyway, you get the point. Besides the cosmetic aspect, over the past 18 months or so I've had to take it in to get fixed at least 4 times. And of course, all of these times the bill comes out to $400 or more. Two days ago takes the cake, however. My check engine light came on a little bit ago so I went to Autozone for a free engine light check (yay Autozone!). They told me my catalytic converter wasn't working efficiently so on Monday I took it in to get checked out. I also knew that my brakes needed fixing or replacing so I was expecting a fairly pricey bill. With Christmas coming up I would have waited a little while if possible, but we're driving to California right after Christmas and I wanted my car in top working order. Yesterday after work I went to go pick it up (which is a bit tricky because Josh's car fits him and MAYBE one other person if it's clean and we have 3...) and the bill ended up being $1200. Yes, the decimal is in the right place. Now it seems easier to put that on a credit card and pay it off slowly, but with all the times we've had to get it fixed recently, it probably would've been better to get a newer car. Ahh the dilemas of life...can't really afford to fix my car, can't really afford a newer one, and definitely can't afford not to fix it. Anyway, it gets better. I give him my card (because, honestly, who really has $1200 to lay down at Christmastime??) and, lucky me, it's declined. Apparently my credit card company has lowered my limit without informing me. In the long run that's good but right now, not so fun. I didn't have another card with me that would work so I went home to get Josh. When I went back, the place was closed.

I don't want to sound like I'm whining or anything but all of this is just really frustrating and I needed to get it out. So hopefully in about 20 minutes the place will be opened and I can go get it. If anything else goes wrong with my car in the next few months, I am so done. Anyone want to buy a car??? It should be good now...

Thanksgiving

This year we spent Thanksgiving with Josh's family at the Grand America Hotel in downtown Salt Lake. This is our third Thanksgiving as a married couple and the first one with Josh's family. That's a little sad! Josh's mom likes the idea of not actually having to spend the whole day cooking; she'd rather just enjoy the food and not have to clean up! I have to say that after this year I'm beginning to agree with her. In my family, Thanksgiving takes all day to prepare and there's lots of great food. Some of my favorite memories are spent in the kitchen, on Thanksgiving and otherwise. I love the food my mom makes and I definitely missed her stuffing this year. It was nice to have such a huge variety of food, however, and NO CLEAN UP! Both ways are awesome, and it's so nice to be able to have the option of doing something different.

Turkeys made out of bread

Turkey ice sculpture

Plate #1. They had a build-your-own-crepe station

Plate #2. I actually did not eat any turkey that day. Lamb & prime rib but no turkey (I'm actually not that big of a fan)

Plate #3

Plates #4 &5. They stole this crepe before I was done!
My sister-in-law Chirin. She had a small amount of "real" food and then went straight for the desserts. To each their own!
Chirin's own little jar of jam. Fancy!
Chirin needed some coke after all that dessert because she got nauseated. Silly girl.... ;)
Chirin found the candy after all that dessert. She discovered jawbreakers. Now a new favorite

Grandpa and Steven
Josh & I. He refuses to make normal faces!

Josh's family; L-R: Jeremy, Josh, me, Steven, Chirin, Rhonda, David, SteveSteven, Josh, & I